David Phillips, an American foreign policy expert, during an interview to Kosovo newspaper "Zëri", said that the Russian president sees Kosovo as an American project and destabilizing the country is Putin's way of dealing with the United States for NATO intervention. According to him, the separation is part of Putin's strategic plan to undermine Western influence in Kosovo and to expand the country's wild influence by strengthening Serbia.
Presidents Hashim Thaci and Vladimir Putin agreed very well during the meeting held in Paris, but we should not be deceived because Russia is not a friend of Kosovo or of the United States of America.According to him, the separation is part of Putin's strategic plan to undermine Western influence in Kosovo and to expand Russia's savage influence by strengthening Serbia.
"Will Putin guarantee that Russia will remove its veto on the UN Security Council for Kosovo's membership? Can I persuade China? I'm skeptical," says Phillips among other things.
The US foreign policy expert during stresed also that Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on the border issue in September this year wrote a letter to the US National Security Adviser, John Bolton, while a copy of this letter was sent to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
"Haradinaj's letter communicated his views on dangerous and destructive efforts by some elements of Kosovo and Serbia to enter into a kind of territorial exchange. As far as I know, Bolton did not answered to this letter. Moreover, the United States has failed to express its position on separation. The division could spur a new phase of ethnic conflict in Kosovo and the region, destabilizing fragile multiethnic states," Phillips noted.
Phillips spoke also about the recent visit to Serbia and Kosovo of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew A. Palmer, who, according to him, made more confusion than clarity.
"During this visit Palmer abolished America's leading role. He insisted that the US was not 'a negotiating party' for the details of normalization between Serbia and Kosovo."